Every year, dozens of new medicines and medical compounds are produced to treat various diseases. Millions of liters of sterile fluids like eye drops, IV solutions, and others are produced each year for these purposes. Despite advances in the field of medical science, over the past years, little progress has been made in medication delivery methods. Each year, millions of dollars are spent to produce these types of medicines. Yet, wastage of medications because of inappropriate delivery systems is a growing problem. Beside consumers, insurance companies, health care organizations, and governmental agencies face economic losses because of the process of erratic dispensing of medications.
Nowadays, sterile fluids have medical, cosmetic, or laboratory applications, like ophthalmology medications, various saline compounds and other injectable or non-injectable solutions. Generally, containers or vials containing theses fluids have suitable dispensing mechanisms well appropriated for use. However, in some cases, external dispensing mechanisms or apparatuses particularly suited for a storage container are required to dispense stored liquids for different purposes. For example, saline intravenous (IV) solutions are usually packed in flexible plastic bags that are very appropriate for intravenous infusion, but in some cases, one may need to use some of these fluids to rinse an eye, feed a newborn or a pup, etc. Although, in operation rooms conditions arise that the personnel forced to draw out some fluid from a sealed vial and drop it one by one on the operation site.
In these conditions at the first step, you have to draw out some fluid from container and at the second step; you have to instill the fluid as drops on the target place. The first step could be done with a conventional syringe, but for second step, two choices exist and both have their own problems. The first choice is using the same syringe and the second is applying a bottle and a dropper. If you use the same syringe for instilling the fluid, it is necessary to carefully control the thumb pressure on the syringe plunger to prevent the syringe contents from suddenly splashing out. Fine dispensing of the sterile liquid from a conventional syringe is highly annoying and difficult to reproduce, and cannot be executed suitably by everybody. Often, therefore, larger quantities of the sterile liquid are dispensed to the target place than required. Additionally, if there is sudden movement of the target object, more of the sterile liquid is wasted.
Your second choice for this purpose is applying a couple of excess devices including a bottle and a dropper with rubber bulb. For maintaining the sterility of the fluid both of them should be sterile and keep from collision with anything. Although the main disadvantage of this choice is high probability of contamination, but imposing additional costs is its other disfavor.
A practical example of this problem: When you want to feed a newborn or a pup by dispensing small quantities of the sterile fluid. You can draw out some fluid by a conventional syringe, but you cannot use the same syringe to dispense the fluid as drops, because it is difficult to synchronize the dispensing device with random movement of a newborn or a pup and simultaneously finely dispense sterile fluid on the target object. In the above-mentioned scenario, many drops of the dispensed sterile fluid are wasted unnecessarily. Moreover, some of the dispensed drops may fall in the nostrils or eyes, which cause dire consequences.
In the case of ophthalmology medications and eye drops, the main problem is maintaining the sterility of the drop. A minor contact of the dropper tip to anything including the skin and lashes causing it to be non-sterile. Even highly efficient eye drop dispensing devices may become non-sterile due to a slight collision and whole of the dropper bottle should be discarded. Despite all the caution that people take, many of these bottles are thrown away daily. It is obvious that the collision between tip of the eyedropper bottle and the skin or lashes is not completely preventable. This is because of visual accommodation system of the human eyes, which permit focusing on both near and far objectives. The minimum distance that the human eye is able to see ranges from about 25 cm to 50 cm in most individuals over the age of 50. Considering the fact that the maximum appropriate distance between eye and dropper could not be more than 20-30 cm and the fact that the most people who have eye and vision problems are aged, the problem of aligning the dropper with the eye and the possibility of being unsterile is prevalent.
Another group of people who use plenty of eye drops is individuals who have had an eye operation or use an artificial medical or cosmetic eye lenses. Regardless of age, this group of people usually has to apply eye drops by themselves. Given that sterility is a very important factor for this group, they usually throw away a large number of eye drop dispensers due to being unsterile. Therefore, in the case of ophthalmology drops if the medication was in a sealed vial and the person was able to draw out a few drops and instill it in the eye, it would not be necessary to throw away the entire drug with a slight collision.
Existing devices do not allow users to draw out sterile liquid from the plastic bag or a sealed vial and dispense the sterile liquid as drops on a target place. Although some irrigation syringes are available in market, but there is a need in the marketplace for an apparatus or device, which allows a user to draw and dispense sterile fluid and directly instill the fluid as drops on the target place, and could be used as an injection syringe. Furthermore, by using of such a device, ophthalmology medications, which are generally produced and sold in the form of sterile dropper bottles, could be presented in sealed vials.
Another group of people who use drop dispensers is laboratory technicians. Sometimes they need a few drops of a hazardous liquid with toxic fumes, for example, formaldehyde or glutaraldehyde, which is in a sealed vial. So, they are faced with problems of avoiding exposure to toxic fumes. According to the above explanation, it seems the best way to prevent wasting of the liquid and avoid toxic fumes is to separate the container and dropper. The container should be sealed and the dropper should be able to draw out the liquid without opening the container. Thus, there is also a need in the art for an apparatus or a device, which enables a user to draw out a few drops of the liquids and directly instill it in a beaker without exposure to toxic fumes.
In sum, there is a long felt but unresolved need for apparatus or device, which allows a user to draw and dispense sterile fluid and directly instill the fluid as drops on the target place, as well as also providing the functions of the injection syringe and the dropper. Moreover, there is a need for an inexpensive and disposable device to prevent wastage of ophthalmology drops. In this way, the ophthalmology drops will be presented in sealed vials and people will use the disposable cheap device to draw out few liquid from the vial and consequently instill it in their eyes. In this manner, if the dispensing device became unsterile the user will throw it away and preserve the remaining medication in the vial. Furthermore, there is a need for an apparatus or device, which enables a user to draw out a few drops of the liquids and directly instill it in a beaker without exposure to toxic fumes.